Payback is Sweet
by Klinestife
Summary: Jaune has finally had enough with Cardin. Even after Forever Falls, he was still an ass to everyone. So one day, in the spur of the moment, Jaune challenged Cardin to a duel in front of the whole school. Cover has nothing to do with anything, but it looks cool. Oneshot


**A/N: Was gonna write a multi-chapter fic for RWBY, but I was too bored with the Jaune character. So I wrote a oneshot of him to try to get into his character. I wanted to get this out of the way, so the scenes are very jerky, awkward, and rushed (to me at least), but if you enjoyed this, be sure to keep an eye out for that fic in the future. And yes, I will put more time and effort into that one.**

**Don't forget to drop a review!**

**Note: I did use an OC, but I was thinking about which character to use, and none of the canon ones really fit the role. **

**Payback is Sweet**

Cardin was an immutable asshole.

Sure, he was bearable after Jaune saved his life in Forever Fall…at least for a few weeks. In that span of time, he managed to somehow convince himself that he could have taken out the Ursa himself if Jaune wasn't there and that said blonde was also somehow responsible for the Ursa's appearance in the first place. So he went right back to his old ways after assuring himself that he did not need help from what he perceived as an inferior fighter.

So when Jaune walked into the cafeteria one day for dinner(after being chewed out by Oobleck once again for not paying attention) and saw Cardin harassing the rabbit faunu once again, some source of frustration and anger surged forward inside him. Ignoring the waving from his teammates and team RWBY, he walked straight towards Cardin and his team, who were pulling on the faunus' ears.

"C'mon, it can't hurt that much, freak." He was laughing. Jaune narrowed his eyes and quickened his pace, ignoring the stares he was drawing from the whole cafeteria. Most of the school didn't know about the incident at Forever Fall, so they were surprised and curious as to why he was approaching his former tormenter.

"I don't know, Cardin. Your ears are pretty big and no one's calling you a freak." The words popped from his mouth without him thinking. Everybody in the cafeteria hushed, some snickering at Cardin's expense while the others were staring wide eyed at Jaune. Cardin looked over towards him and glared. He let go of the faunu's ears and stood up, walking straight over Jaune and towering over him. Jaune glared right back at him, not to be intimidated.

"What do you want, Arc?" He asked in a tone that he no doubt thought was menacing. Jaune pitied him enough in the back of his mind to try to conserve Cardin's reputation, so he leaned in close and whispered.

"Just because I told you to leave me and my team alone doesn't mean you can keep being an asshole to every other Faunus in this school." He said under his breath, glaring at him. Cardin looked down on him with a condescending look on his face.

"What, is the animal one of your friends now?"

"No. But just because she's a Faunus doesn't mean you can-"

"And what are you going to do about it?" Cardin asked, cutting him off. His last statement was loud enough for the onlookers to hear, who were now whispering amongst themselves. A few seconds passed as Jaune tried to come up with a way to make him submit.

Violence between students were strictly prohibited in Beacon Academy, due to the volatile nature of many of the students' semblances. A fight could easily result in half the school going up in flames, or being blown apart by an explosive of some sort. Taking him on outside the school was also prohibited. Their aura usage would be a magnet to every Grimm in the vicinity. Fighting him head on would likely result in both their expulsions, if not their deaths.

It wasn't stopping him from seriously considering punching Cardin in the face though.

"Just challenge him to a duel." A voice rang out from the crowd. They both turned towards the source. The owner of the voice was a boy with black hair and blue eyes, wearing an impassive expression (some would say bored). Jaune managed to attach a name to the face. His name was Silas. Their teams had to work together once in a Grimm hunting mission, but they never really interacted with each other. Hell, the only reason Jaune could remember him was the fact that he wore leather, a material that was almost archaic now.

Silas looked between the two of them, noting their blank expressions.

"You two really think Ozpin's stupid enough to stuff a bunch of teens in one place and not have a method of letting them vent?" He asked, arching his eyebrow. The two fidgeted in slight embarrassment.

"Goodwitch explained it in her lecture before the sparring matches. You just need to take it to her and state a reason." He said in a flat tone. Silas glanced around the room to see the effects of his words. Everybody was expressing to each other their surprise, doubting that Jaune would actually go through with it. As far as they knew, he was one of the weakest fighters in Beacon, after all.

Jaune glanced sideways at Cardin. He thought about how Cardin was a complete coward when the Ursa Major had smashed through the trees. He thought about all the training Pyrrha put him through.

"Where's Professor Goodwitch's office?" He asked, steely eyed. Most people around him gasped in surprise, but he swore he could see a slight twinkle in Silas's eyes.

-o-

After the challenge in the cafeteria, Jaune had immediately walked out of the cafeteria ("...He just skipped dinner." Ruby said incredulously. Weiss rolled her eyes at her obsession.), stormed up two floors, and knocked on Goodwitch's office door before stopping and actually thinking about what he was doing.

It was only then did his mental faculties fully returned to him, and he began to form doubts about this idea. He knew he couldn't back out now, that's for sure. He had just all but announced to half the school that he was going to duel Cardin, backing out would label him a coward and strengthening their opinion of him as a useless fighter. Not to mention that Cardin will likely lose any respect he had and start bothering Jaune and his team again.

Even so, instinctual panic was starting to fill him. Not because he was scared, but because his mind simply wasn't used to confronting other people and doubt has been his default emotion when confronted with unfamiliar situations. His mind started generating every possible scenario on how this could go badly, and he was seriously debating leaving when Goodwitch had opened her door. He froze.

"Yes, Mr Arc?" She asked, with her normal cold attitude. He gulped. She was always more intimidating in person. He was tempted to walk away, but he thought about how the whole school was looking forward to a grudge match.

"I-I wanted to set up a duel," He said, cursing his stutter. "with Cardin Winchester." Goodwitch's eyebrow twitched up and she beckoned him inside. Jaune stepped inside the spotless, neat office and sat nervously in a chair as she took her seat behind her office table.

"Really, Mr. Arc?" She asked skeptically. She knew about the incident in Forever Falls, and how Pyrrha was helping him train in the off-hours, but she highly doubted that Jaune had managed to progress to a level sufficient to beat Card a few short weeks.

She didn't know how closely her thoughts paralleled Jaune's current train of thought. He was more convinced that this was a bad idea by the minute as his irrational panic mounted.

"Well...I can't back out. I kind of...challenged him in front of the whole school." He muttered, keeping his eyes down.

"...I see. I'm assuming something made you emotional enough to do something so stupid?"

"...yes."

"And?"

"And what?"

"What made you so angry?"

Jaune paused and looked up at her.

"Cardin was picking on the rabbit Faunus girl. You are aware there is discrimination against them?" He asked, tone more accusatory than he had planned. His heart sank as Goodwitch gave him a glare, somewhat offended at his implication that she couldn't do her job right.

"We usually stop students from doing anything more than glare at them." She said, slightly miffed, "We act as soon as we hear of it. You were the first one to tell us about Cardin." Jaune scowled at what he perceived to be an inefficient system, then he suddenly brightened up.

"So...if you deal with him before I have to fight him..."

"I will deal with him." Goodwitch said. Jaune looked up at her to thank her, then slowly frowned as he saw a - dare he say - mischievous twinkle in her eye, "Your duel request has been accepted." Jaune's mouth dropped open as Goodwitch nonchalantly took out her scroll and opened it, tapping on the screen.

"Wha...Professor Goodwitch-"

"Best get ready, Mr. Arc," She said, snapping the scroll shut, "Duel's tomorrow."

-o-

Team JNPR very prompt when it came to the 11 o'clock curfew. Well, three of their members were, at least. Ren usually had to drag or bribe Nora back to the dormitory because she always refused to go back ("Who sleeps at 11?"), sometimes with the help of his teammates.

This night, however, was different. Pyrrha was sitting at the only study desk in the room, studying as per usual. Ren was sitting on his bed with Nora bouncing beside him, trying to study and failing to as Nora kept giggling and poking him in his cheek. He sighed as he warded off her finger with his palm.

"Where's Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, looking at the clock. It was almost curfew, and Jaune never cut it this close.

"I don't know. Last we saw of him, he was storming out of the cafeteria." Ren said, slightly irritated. Nora abandoned her poking assault at this subject.

"He was so cool there!" She said, grinning widely. "He was like a white knight! Swooping in to save the damsel in distress!" She hopped off the floor to demonstrate exactly what she meant. That last statement irritated Pyrrha for some reason.

"Yes..." She frowned, glancing at the food she sneaked out of the cafeteria for Jaune. It was ice cold at this point. Sadly, none of the rooms were supplied with microwave or stoves.

Suddenly, the door burst open, startling all three of them, with Pyrrha instinctually reaching for her weapon before she noticed it Jaune.

"Jaune!" She said, hastily letting go of her spear reaching for the bag of food, "I got some-"

"Jaune!" Nora yelled happily, as she ran the whole two meter length of the room to high-five him.

"What was I thinking?" Jaune yelled in despair as he stormed over to his bed and sprawled over it. Nora was left hanging. Pyrrha rolled her eyes as she recognized Jaune's low self esteem kicking in.

Ren sighed and put his book away, resigned to the fact that he was not going to get any studying in tonight.

"Where were you?" He asked Jaune. Jaune sighed.

"I went to Goodwitch's. She set up the duel for tomorrow before I could say anything." He groaned. Nora plopped down on his bed, like it was story time. "Then, I walked around school to, you know, calm my nerves. But the whole school was talking about how this scrawny guy is taking on Cardin."

"And why were you out there for 4 hours?" Pyrrha asked, more pointed than she had meant. Ren glanced at her from the corner of her eyes and shook his head slightly. She got the message and shut her mouth.

"I was at the training rooms, trying to psych myself up." He rolled over and groaned, "I ended up doing the worst I've ever done."

The training rooms were rooms designed for hunters to hone their skills. They used high quality holograms that simulate anything from Grimm to other hunters, and even came with a difficulty level that the trainee could adjust, along with time and number of enemies at once. The walls were also lined with special aura-nullifying dust (Unfortunately, the dust is very uncommon...otherwise, they would have lined the whole school with it and then some), so the trainees could use everything at their disposal to take out the enemies. At the end of a session, either by 'death' or eliminating every enemy, they are given a score based on their performance.

"...so how did you do?" Ren asked despite himself. Now Pyrrha shot him a look.

"I got a 63. D rank." Jaune muttered. Pyrrha's eyebrows shot up. D rank was the average rank that first year students at Signal got. It was also the level he had started at before she began to train him. Over the weeks, he had steadily improved to the point where he had at least an 80 per session, which was passable in Beacon. To hear he had regressed was troubling to say the least, especially right before his duel with Cardin.

"What am I gonna do at the duel tomorrow?" Jaune groaned into his pillow. Each one of his teammates exchanged glances and made a silent agreement to cheer him up. The only problem was, each one of them had different ideas of what cheering up meant, exactly.

"The fight'll be a cinch. Just break his legs and you'll win the fight! Plus, he'll never bother anyone again after that!" Nora said cheerfully.

"You should try meditating. It sounds cliché, but it always calms me down when I'm stressed out." Ren suggested.

"I can give you some of my aura before the fight starts." Pyrrha offered.

Each one of these suggestions came at the same time, with every speaker trying to talk over each other.

"Just take your sword and swing at his legs! Make sure you put as much power behind it as possible."

"I can tell you the basics, it's mostly about deep breathing at the beginning."

"It's pretty risky, but I'm pretty sure I can pull it off."

"Or better yet, we can help you break his legs before you two fight! Just say the word."

"A good position to do this is also important. Your whole body gets stiff if it's stuck in the wrong position."

"It'll make the fight a lot more bearable for you. Cardin doesn't know you can use auras now."

This continued for a few minutes, growing steadily in volume as each person tried to get their voice heard. None of them noticed Jaune putting his pillow over his head to try and block out the sound. Then, suddenly, a knock on the door echoed throughout the room.

Everyone immediately shut up, and Jaune silently thanked the person on the other side of the door.

"Coming." Pyrrha called out, getting up from her desk and walking over. Jaune heard her open the door.

"Silas?" Pyrrha sounded surprised. Jaune was curious enough to look over at the door, seeing that it was indeed Silas, armor off and replaced with a black hoodie.

"Nikos." He greeted with a curt nod. He opened his mouth to begin to speak.

"Hi, Silas!" Nora said happily, rocking herself back and forth on the bed. Silas closed his mouth and frowned, looking over at her.

"Nora." He replied, slightly unnerved by...well...by Nora. He quickly continued before he was interrupted again. "You guys are getting really loud in here. Teammates are trying to get some sleep."

"People are trying to sleep right after curfew?" Jaune asked skeptically. Silas gave him a look.

"Look, I know it's hard sometimes, but please just-"

"Something going on over there? It's real quiet all of the sudden." The voice came from across the hallway. Silas exhaled in frustration as he turned around to look at Ruby standing at her open door.

"I-" He began.

"Everything's fine." Pyrrha said, giving Ruby a reassuring look. Ruby's eyes darted between the two, clearly confused.

"Just do what she says." Silas said, peeking into their room. _...Are those cards? _He wondered.

Eventually, Ruby shrugged and closed her door, apparently deciding that she could just ask about it in the morning.

"They're not sleeping right now." Jaune said. Silas shot him an exasperated look.

"Yes, well, our team doesn't have a Yang or a Nora, alright?" Silas snapped at him, "Just keep it down, I had to walk halfway through the building to get here."

Silas looked around the room, and satisfied that he has successfully mortified them into being quiet for at least the night, he turned to leave. "Now, if you'll excuse me.."

Suddenly, Pyrrha realized what an opportunity this was. Silas was somewhat responsible for getting Jaune into this mess, after all, so she might be able to guilt trip him into helping somehow.

"Wait. I need to talk to you" Pyrrha said, grabbing on his arm. Silas looked at her in surprise and confusion as she yanked him outside and shut the door.

He grimaced after the initial shock passed. Private talks with people you barely know was never a good sign.

"You need to help Jaune." She said quickly. He cocked his head and frowned.

"...No, I don't think I do."

"Don't give me that. If you didn't suggest this, he wouldn't be in this mess."

"It was his choice. If anything, I helped him. He was about to punch Cardin in the face. You can imagine what would've happened if he did that."

She could. Cardin would've hit back, his team would've backed him up, teams RWBY and JNPR would have rushed over to help, and the whole cafeteria would've probably ended up taking sides. But she wasn't about to let him know that.

"Regardless, you got him into this mess, and you need to help him out." Silas rolled his eyes and sighed, rubbing his forehead in exasperation. He recognized the look in her eyes. It was the look that made it pointless to continue arguing.

"You're not going to back down, are you?" He asked, knowing the answer already. She shook her head. "Why do you think I can help him?"

"You sparred with Cardin a while back. You can tell Jaune how he fights."

"Your leader's a smart guy. He can figure it out." He wasn't joking either. He saw the videos of the Death Stalker fight. Sure, he didn't actually do any of the fighting, but he was able to quickly take advantage of the opening Ren had opened up. Compare that to most of the other initiates that day, most of whom were panicking at a few Ursas, Jaune's initiative was pretty damn impressive.

"He has...self esteem issues. He doesn't believe he can beat Cardin on his own."

"He seemed pretty certain back in the cafeteria."

"He was angry. He wasn't thinking clearly."

"That'll work when he's talking to Ozpin."

Pyrrha had to catch herself from another retort. He was dragging her off track.

"Can we-"

"I'll do it." He said quickly, cutting her off. She blinked, surprised at the quick response. She gave him a confused and a little suspicious look.

He cleared his throat after she stood there for several seconds.

"Can you.." He said, gesturing towards the door handle.

"Ah." Of course. Beacon's doors were all programmed to open only when it recognizes the fingerprints of the user. Perks to being the most successful academy in Remnant. She quickly tapped her fingertips on the door handle, then opened the door.

Every occupant in the room looked straight at the door, somewhat surprised at seeing Silas coming back in the room. Silas grimaced under all the attention. He somehow still wasn't used to being center of attention after weeks in Beacon. Pyrrha saw his discomfort and tried to help him out.

"He's agreed to try and help Jaune out." She said. Silas couldn't help but snort.

"Agreed is a strong term." He muttered under his breath, so only Pyrrha could hear him. _Grudgingly accepted is more like it. Any longer out there and some teacher_

"Right. Nikos thinks that because I fought Cardin once, I can give Jaune some pointers on how to beat him."

Ren nodded in approval, recognizing the value of knowing the enemy. Jaune sighed mentally, but sat up anyways. Any help would be useful at this point anyways.

"He's slow. That's a perk that comes with using a mace. His swings are always wide, because he needs momentum to get any power behind his attacks, so just hit him when he throws himself off balance..."

-o-

Ren was suspicious of Silas. Sure, his pep talk last night helped Jaune out surprisingly much. He could hear Jaune muttering the tips under his breath half the night. Nora seems to like him too, and she generally has a sense for the nature of people.

Still, that didn't change the fact that he still wasn't sure exactly what Silas wanted. He was a smart guy, he probably knew Jaune was going to take him up on his offer. The fact that he was the one who dropped by seemed a little too convenient last night, too.

There was also that little thing he pulled at the end of the pep talk. He had pat Jaune's shoulders in what would like like friendly encouragement to anyone else, but he had seen Silas's palm glow blue for a split second. That meant that he had done something with aura.

Every hunter, huntress, and...most trainees (_Jaune_) knew about the dangers of sharing aura between people. Everybody's aura is unique, and to inject your aura into somebody's aura flow could potentially have catastrophic results. The only safe application is to unlock somebody's dormant aura, because one's own aura is consumed removing the block. Otherwise, it takes years of training to know how to safely share aura, and those people only use it to heal wounds or help people that expended too much of their own aura.

So judging by the fact that Jaune isn't convulsing on the floor, it seems that Silas had training in the subject, far more than any other student at this academy, but it was impossible to tell exactly what he did. In the short term though, Jaune certainly seemed more upbeat than usual.

Team JNPR was currently in the backstage of the sparring floor. Their leader was busy swinging his blade to "get a feel for it" while his teammates all gave him various words of encouragement, or advice on which limbs to go for.

"Just focus and keep what Silas said in mind. Hit him when he misses, go for the arms-"

"Legs!"

"-and don't grapple with him." Pyrrha finished firmly, shooting Nora a glare. She giggled and swung her arms around, cheerfully unaware or just` not caring of her teammate's disapproval. Ren peeked out from behind the curtain, seeing possibly every first years gathered there for a peek at their first grudge match.

"...be sure to ignore the crowd, too." He said to Jaune. Jaune paused a little there, and Ren was almost sure his cheeks turned ashen at that, but he quickly shook it off. _Impressive,_ Ren thought to himself, though he couldn't help but wonder if this was a result of Silas's interference.

The sound of someone clearing their throat brought him out of his thoughts, and he turned to see Professor Goodwitch standing there.

"It's time, Mr. Arc." She said, beckoning to him.

"Good luck, Jaune!" Pyrrha said, smiling at him as she walked down the stairs to join the crowd. Nora whispered something into his ears, giggling as she followed Nora. Ren simply nodded to Jaune before following suit.

-o-

Jaune was calm. So calm that he managed to surprise himself. He usually had a terrible case of stage fright when it comes to events like this, but he just assumed that it was because he could focus all his attention on Cardin, who was standing on the other side of the stage.

They both walked to the center of the stage where Goodwitch was standing. She silently handed them both a wrist device.

"This is a school sanctioned duel," She said as Jaune snapped the device onto his wrist. His aura levels popped up above him, "This stage is lined with aura nullifying and weapon blunting dust, so you may use all of your techniques to their fullest. The match will end when one of you reaches red aura levels. Understood?"

They both nodded. The speech was just a formality, anyways. Everybody knew the rules.

"Then begin." Goodwitch said, stepping back.

Cardin didn't waste any time. He charged Jaune as soon as the words left her mouth, swinging his mace over his shoulder in preparation for a swing. Jaune barely managed to set himself into a proper combat stance before Cardin reached him.

_Watch the direction his swing comes, _Jaune could see Cardin reeling up for a big swing and quickly ducked to the left. A clean miss.

_Press your advantage. They're most exposed after an attack. _Jaune used his shield to bash Cardin in his side, knocking him off balance. As Cardin was stumbling, Jaune quickly slashed him in the right shoulder, hoping to force him to drop his weapon. Cardin tried to retaliate, giving a weak swipe in return. There wasn't much momentum behind it, so Jaune caught it with his shield and shoved it back the way it came, leaving Cardin so exposed that he could almost leisurely pick which area to attack.

_Balance is the most important thing in a fight. Lose it, lose the fight. _Jaune went for the leg (Nora cheered in the audience). That would force Cardin on the defensive - if he was smart. Cardin grit his teeth as he felt burning pain lance across his leg and shoved Jaune back. Jaune managed to regain his footing within a second and settle back into his pose.

Cardin grit his teeth as pain lanced through his arm and leg. There wouldn't be any permanent damage - in fact, if he looked down right now, there wouldn't even be a cut - but it would still affect his fighting here and now. He looked over at the holograms displaying their aura levels. It was the exact reverse of their last fight. Jaune was at full, and Cardin was already dangerously close to the halfway point.

He stamped his leg, trying to force the pain out, and narrowed his eyes at Jaune. He couldn't lose here, his reputation would be ruined. Nobody would take him or his team seriously again if he was beaten by this _puny little-! _

He ignored the pain in his arm as he raised his mace again. He had one advantage Jaune didn't - a ranged attack. He activated the red dust crystal in his mace and slammed it onto the ground.

Jaune's eyes widened in surprise as a tendril of fire rushed towards him. He quickly hopped to the side to dodge it, but Cardin sent another his way shortly after, and another after Jaune dodged that one too. Jaune couldn't see a way to get close enough to Cardin to stop his spamming.

_You'll always have the advantage if you do the unexpected. _Cardin was trying to buy time and get some free damage in. Jaune needed to stop him, but he couldn't get close enough.

Jaune had never done it in a real fight before, but he figured it was about time. After evading another tendril of fire, he took a deep breath and thought back to the sessions he had with Pyrrha on how to control his aura. He focused...diverted a tiny bit of his aura flow...and a basic aura shield popped out to block the next fire attack. Jaune grinned, happy he had managed to summon it in a real fight. It had been inconsistent during training.

_Aura shields stop any attack before it gets to the user. That means if a car hit you, you won't be knocked back. Use this to your advantage. _Jaune focused again, charging forward and keeping the shield up, not deterred at all by the tendrils that bounced off his sphere of protection.

Cardin's eyes widened in shock as he saw Jaune charging out of the fire, brandishing his sword. He pivoted on his good leg and sidestepped the swing, then tried to sidearm his mace. It was the same move he used the first time they fought. Unfortunately for him, Jaune has learned a lot since the last fight.

Jaune's attack was a fake. He had barely put any momentum into it, so when Cardin sidestepped, he was able to cut the swing short extremely quickly and was able to bring his shield up in time to block Cardin's sideswipe. He brought his sword above his head and brought it down on Cardin's shoulder. The blow sent him reeling back, and Jaune saw an easy opportunity to end the fight.

"_This_ is the part," He said, swinging his shield up against Cardin's chin and making him see stars, "is the part where _you_ lose."

In the audience, Pyrrha frowned at the spite in Jaune's voice.

Jaune glanced sideways at their aura levels. Cardin still wasn't quite in the red, but the fight was over already. He could tell from how Cardin was stumbling around, disoriented.

_Might as well take a page from Ruby's book and go for flash, _he thought to himself, grinning. He wanted Cardin to remember this one. He gathered aura again as he stalked towards Cardin.

"And this time, Cardin," He said, quiet enough so only Cardin could hear, "If you don't have anything to say that doesn't make you a jerk, don't say it." And he kicked Cardin in the stomach.

What happened next chocked everyone in the stadium, Jaune (and even Goodwitch) included. A massive white light appeared as soon as his foot made contact, and Cardin was sent flying halfway across the stage, sliding a good extra 10 feet before coming to a halt, unconscious. Jaune froze in shock, and even slight horror. It was only then that one of Pyrrha's lesson came floating back to his head.

_People with enough experience can control their aura as naturally as breathing. You've used it sometimes on pure instinct. However, since you're still a beginner in consciously using aura, you need to be as calm as possible. Otherwise, you might lose control...and you have more aura than most people._

Jaune gulped as he looked at his handiwork. Cardin was barely moving, and his aura meter on the screen had only a few slivers of red left. Goodwitch hurried over to Cardin, and after making sure he wasn't in serious danger, stood up.

"Mr. Winchester's aura has dipped into the red, and is unable to continue fighting. Mr. Arc is the winner." She announced.

Nora frowned when the people around her started whispering to each other, talking about how "dipped into the red was an understatement". Jaune had won, hadn't he? She rolled her eyes and started clapping. Her teammates slowly followed suit, then team RWBY joined in.

In the back of the room, Silas groaned quietly. _If this is one of those moments where it ends with the whole audience clapping, I'm going to kill myself, _he thought to himself. Then he looked down at Teams JNPR and RWBY, still the sole clappers. He rolled his eyes, cursed himself, and started clapping along with them.

That was apparently the catalyst required for the rest of the room to start clapping. Everybody in the audience realized that despite how brutal it was, Cardin was taught a lesson. Cardin. The well known bully of their year. And it was from Jaune, quite possibly the one that no one expected much from. It gave all of them the hope that they could improve just as much, and just as rapidly.

Silas immediately stopped clapping when the applause reached a crescendo and cupped his forehead, groaning at how cliché it all was.

-o-

After the fight, Cardin had been carted off to the infirmary, accompanied by his team and Goodwitch, while Jaune had met up with his team. He was berated by Pyrrha for not properly controlling his aura, while Nora commended him for his leg attack and the explosion. Ren merely nodded along with Nora's animated re-enactment of the fight and complimented Jaune on how far he had come since the initiation.

After all the excitement had passed, Ren excused himself and went to look for Silas. He was convinced that Silas was responsible for the incident at the end, not to mention how Jaune had acted towards the end of that fight.

So when he found him, he wasted no time. He walked up and called his name.

"Silas." He turned around at the sound of his name.

"Ah. Hi, Ren." He said, already suspecting what the conversation was for.

"What exactly did you do to Jaune last night?" Ren asked, letting accusation creep into his tone. _Right on cue,_ Silas thought.

"That was just supposed to be a little boost is all. Faster reactions, more strength, more speed. How do you think he won so easily?"

"A little- do you know how dangerous it is to share aura between people?" Ren asked angrily.

"Ah, yes. Who doesn't?" He said, rolling his eyes. Ren paused at this, confused. Why would he do something like that knowing the risks?

"Don't worry, I knew what I was doing. I had a good teacher." Silas said, sensing Ren's confusion. This statement did nothing to curb Ren's feeling of confusion and unease, but it did make sense. It would mean that Silas wasn't from Signal Academy, that's all. And there was sure to be an expert out there somewhere in Vale that would be willing to teach someone else. Not that uncommon. But still...

"Were you expecting him to blow up?" He asked. There was still that little event.

"No, actually. Exactly how much aura does that kid have?"

"...I don't know. I think Pyrrha's the only one to know. She's the one that unlocked his aura after all." Ren replied. He wasn't sure why he was replying, but he felt like the information couldn't hurt anyone. It wasn't against the rules for a student to unlock another student's aura, after all.

"Wow. Intimate." Silas smirked. The corner of Ren's mouth tugged upwards despite himself. They stood there for several seconds, not saying anything.

"If that's all, I should be going. Classes to get to after all that excitement." Silas excused himself.

_...right. Classes, _Ren had actually forgotten about that after all the excitement today. They shook hands and parted ways, but before they did so, Silas leaned in close and muttered something to Ren.

"You should thank me, you know. Your leader can finally take his mind off his social status and work on the important things."

Ren couldn't agree more.


End file.
